BUDGET DEBATE

Grey River Argus, 23 June 1943, Page 5

BUDGET DEBATE

ALIEN DOCTORS Rehabilitation of Soldiers P.A. WELLINGTON, June 22. “I have no hesitation in saying that New Zealand’s proposals for the rehabilitation of her returned servicemen are far ahead of those of any other part of the Empire,” said Mr. J. Thorn (Govt. Thames) in the Budget debate in the House this afternoon. “Not only are they) in advance, but we are treating our servicemen much more generously.” Mr. Thorn said that he had formed this opinion on a comparison of the rehabilitation plans with those of other portions of the Empire. Of course, ne added, there were difficulties which had to be faced. For instance there was the problem of housing of soldiers who had returned. But Japan had intervened in the war and tradesmen employed on housing construction had to be switched on to defence work. Had this not been necessary, there would be four to five thousand additional houses in the Dominion to-day, and this would have more than provided for those servicemen who had returned, and they! would also have been able to provide houses for the most urgent civilian cases. '

A remodelling of the Social Security Scheme, so that the doctors now overseas; with the fighting forces would be glad to return to the country was urged by Mr. H. J. D. Acland (Nat. Temuka). He stated that at the present time there were sixty or more alien doctors in the Dominion. It did not seem right, he said that they should be making fortunes while New Zealand doctors were fighting overseas. We wanted to encourage our most brilliant doctors to come back. He said that we must see that New Zealand was a paradise for good and able doctors, and not a paradise for mediocre, unskilled ones. The doctors, generally, were very much overworked. Partly this was due to war conditions, and partly to the operations of the Social Security Scheme. Some doctors, he said, appeared to encourage patients to visit them so that they could collect the 7s 6d

The Attorney General, Hon. H. G. R. Mason referred to Mr. Acland’s criticism of alien doctors. Mr. Mason asked: What was the use of complaining of fthe alien doctors when there' was such a great shortage of doctors at present? The expulsion of the alien doctors, he said, would not help, and the people should be grateful that these doctors were in the 1 Dominion just now. . Speaking of education the Minister stated that, now that the accrediting system had taken the place of Matriculation for university entrance, a complete overhaul of the secondary syllabus was made possible, and a strong committee was at work on the matter. One of the principal objectives, would be to make the secondary school syllabus more realistic, because a majority of boys attending the secondary schools had no intention of going on to the university. There would definitely be a bill introduced during the present session to raise the school age to fifteen years. . This could have been done by regulation, but that was based on a statute twenty years old, and ne thought that the subject should receive the consideration of the House. MR NASH TAKEN TO TASK. Mr W. A. Bodkin (Nat., Central Otago), said he wished to enter an emphatic protest against the action of the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, in Christchurch recently, when he announced that something important had happened in the Pacific concerning the New' Zealanders. He said he would remind the Minister and the House that wives and mothers of those boys remained at home m New Zealand, and. he would draw their attention to the reactions such a statement had caused. Immediately after the announcement had been made, he said, people all over his electorate communicated with him by telephone, asking if our boys in the Pacific had been in action. The Minister’s action was thoughtless, and he did !ho,pe that, in future, when the Minister made a statement, he would tell the whole story, and that wives and mothers would not be left in doubt. Mr Bodkin, speaking of the Controller of Commercial Broadcasting, said he considered if a contemptible and despicable thing for the Government to shelter itself behind the Army to get rid of the controller. Mr Bodkin, however, withdrew the terms “contemptible and despicable,” when a point of order, was raised by Hon. D. G. Sullivan. Mr Bodkin said that it was the Government’s plain duty to have dismissed its officer.

The debate was interrupted at 10 p.m. when the House rose.